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Problem with Vectorworks DRM

Hi there.
My girlfriend just bought Vectorworks 2013 for herself. As she's on the leave from a job, se wanted to have this in order to be able to use the files she worked on, therefore allowing self-promotion. The problem is that it turns out that her former boss was using a pirated version of Vectorworks. The problem is that the drm of Vectorworks disallow the usage of files created by illegal versions of Vectorworks on legal versions on Vectorworks. In a nutshell, my girlfriend cannot use files she made at her former job because of a decision of her boss at the time.

The thing gets worse when it turns out that Vectorworks creators will activate file usage if one delates the illegal creator of the file and if this one turns to an official version. Really classy, even maybe a bit borderline regarding the law.

So my question is: does anybody have a solution or a idea where to find one?
I am hoping for a file converter or something like this.

The point is that she doesn't want to use a pirated version anymore, so she paid a hefty price to have a legal Vectorworks. But, then again, she is the one punished since she can't use stuff made on pirated Vectorworks, when the pirated one can use anything made by any version of Vectorworks.

The point is that she doesn't want to use a pirated version anymore, so she paid a hefty price to have a legal Vectorworks. But, then again, she is the one punished since she can't use stuff made on pirated Vectorworks, when the pirated one can use anything made by any version of Vectorworks.

I'm sure support will help unlock her files. Industrial design / enterprise applications of this caliber usually have a 90 day or more "intense support" period where you can be in contact with a support engineer by phone at any time and get continuous response for the first 24 hours until the situation is resolved. Have you looked into that?

What's more important: To get the job done, or to justify her expense?

Dude has a point.

I use VW (on 2012 at work) and tbh this is the first I was aware of this DRM thing with regard to drawings. It might be a case that she could export out the files into an earlier vectorworks format using a pirated copy (say 2012 or 2009) and then re-import those back into her legitimate copy (it should keep all the formatting etc). I find it hard to imagine that whatever watermarking the legitimate version does carries back through earlier versions.